


A kingdom by the sea

by danying



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, MerMay, Multi, Prince Alec Lightwood, merman!magnus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 17:06:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18832981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danying/pseuds/danying
Summary: Kingdom of Idris has angered a foe they have never encountered before. It falls on the shoulders of the crown prince to battle the evil hidden beneath the waves of the ocean





	A kingdom by the sea

The sea was undead.   
  
Though it had appeared alive like a monster with a thousand watery tentacles rising up, nothing about the nature of this stormy sea warranted the word ‘Alive’, in description of it. The malicious winds had acted the part of a necromancer and brought the smooth sleeping ocean to desecrated life and given it the rage of a thousand drowned warriors. And as the fates would have it, the good ship  _ Cassiel _ had found herself trying to navigate her way through these enraged waves, crashing overboard and doing their damned best to drag her under. And standing atop the main deck of this ill-fated vessel was a young sailor, barely out of boyhood with the subtlest hint of a dark stubble on his otherwise smooth face, on his very first voyage across the sea.   
  
And unknowing to him and everyone else abroad, his very last as well.   
  
The boy was trying his best to act brave, but he wasn’t fooling anyone. There were tears in his eyes as he tugged at a rope with all his might, in an attempt to obey the captain’s orders and hold the sails. He had seen his fellow sailors falling over and drowning. Heard the scream of Old Tom as he lost his footing and went tumbling over the rails. But the boy had not lost his balance or grip. Yet.    
  
The waves tossed the ship around as if it was nothing but a plaything. As the boy struggled with the rope, it seemed that finally his luck had run out as he slipped on the wet deck and fell over into the dark and churning sea beneath.   
  
For one infinite moment the boy was suspended in limbo, falling through air, feeling weightless and breathless. Then he crashed into the water, his clothes weighed him down and all he could taste feel and unfortunately breathe, was salt water. He was drowning and there was absolutely no hope in Hell for him when a piece of driftwood jabbed him in the ribs. With the last bout of strength that often came over the dying and the desperate, he grabbed it, hoping against hope to stay afloat as he broke the surface of the water and gasped in a lungful of fresh air.   
  
The boy’s luck had not run out yet.   
  


Or so it seemed, until the his head went under once again. This time it was a quick and unpredictable motion. Almost as if something,  _ someone _ , had dragged him down.   
  
After a second of initial fright at drowning, the boy’s mind came to a strange state of lucid alertness, making his closed eyes snap open, and what he beheld made him exhale what little air he had breathed, in one unfortunate silent scream.   
  
Holding him down with an arm around his neck was a man of ethereal beauty; wild black hair framing sharp features on a smooth golden face. The boy noticed luminous necklaces adorning his bear chest and his lips were curled up in to a sharp and bright smile. Even as his grip tightened around the boy’s neck, his smile never wavered. And as the final bit of air left his lungs and merciless salt water began to fill the boy’s lungs, he cast his eyes downwards, unable to look in to this angelic face of death, and witnessed a fresh horror.

  
Where the man’s legs would usually have been, there was no such appendages at all but one long tail of a thousand shimmering scales.   
  
The boy’s breathless struggle ceased, and beside him, the merman laughed.

 

The council is abuzz with dread murmurs. It seems as if everyone has something to say but nobody has the courage to say it out loud.  _ Perhaps if they were at least a little courageous, there would not have been a tragedy to whisper about in the first place. _ Alexander Lightwood thinks bitterly and sighs. He is not too fond of his father’s Council, but as the Crown Prince and the Lord Commander he is duty bound to appear whenever the Council is in session and lately, they have been forced to gather with increasing frequency.    
  


“This is the third ship we lost this week!”   
  


Lord Treasurer Blackwell speaks a little too loud for Alexander’s liking. There is an accusatory edge to his words and Alexander is sharp enough to catch the quick glimpse of disapproval that flashes in his Father, the King’s eyes.   
  


“We are quite well aware, Lord Blackwell,” Lady Inquisitor Herondale’s wizened voice holds much sarcasm as she peers at the tall man from behind her half-moon glasses. “There is no need to raise your voice. All of us here know how to add numbers.”   
  


Alexander cracks a smile at the old woman’s words. Imogen Herondale might not be a pleasant companion but she certainly was an adept politician and a valuable ally. Alexander had grown up watching her rise through ranks in a court dominated by powerful men and held a respect for her unwavering determination and unparalleled cunning.   
  


She also happened to possess the second biggest army of trained foot soldiers in the Kingdom of Idris. Second only to the Army of the Crown. The Herondale army was led by young lord Jonathon, a boy close to Alexander’s age and whom the King had wisely appointed as the Sworn Shield to Prince Alexander on the day the boy turned sixteen.   
  


Whoever held the House of Herondale in this political game, held Idris.   
  


“Wouldn’t it be wiser for us to avoid the sea routes where these accidents happened?” Alexander knows young Lord Lovelace, newly appointed Lord Physician, knows of sea fare as much as he knew about war fare, which is to say absolutely nothing. Yet he was trying to help which was more than what could be said for the other bickering lords.   
  


“It’s not quite possible, Lord Lovelace,” Alexander glances at Lord Admiral Branwell, a red headed man of strong build who nods at the young prince before returning his gaze to the map on the table, his eyes fixed on the patch of blue that marked the Pentagram of Doom, the ocean area where all the Idris Vessels and their crews were meeting their untimely doom. “The closest trade routes to six of our biggest trade partners cut through the Pentagram, we don’t have the time or the resources to send our fleets around the Adamas Islands just so they will miss the Pentagram. We have to find another way.”   
  


His father sighs and rubs his temple.  Losing ships, both trade vessels and military ones, at this rate would mean a serious threat to the Kingdom’s economy as well as its security. The Fleet of Idris was famous for their ruthless battle strategies and large numbers. But if they lost half their best ships to the Pentagram, rival kingdoms would smell their weakness from miles away, probably resulting in all-out war.    
  


“What is causing these sudden storms?” The king asks finally, his tone stuck somewhere between a question and a complaint. “This is not the usual time of the year when such storms happen!”   
  


“You know what is causing them, Your Grace,” 

 

The voice that speaks up is one that Alexander is not used to hearing at the Council meetings, even though the speaker was never absent at said meetings. Lady Gray introduced herself as a healer and a wise woman, but everybody knew there was more to her than that. She had appeared in the court around the time Alec was about ten years old and his father had hired her immediately. Rumors said that she was something  _ more _ than human, something from the myths and legends. She neither dismissed nor confirmed them, remaining a constant mystery of King Robert’s Court.

 

“What are you implying, Lady Gray?”

 

“These freak storms started to happen after the Rebellion, your Grace.” The healer spoke in calm and quiet tones. “And we all have heard about what that rebel Morgenstern did hidden in his castle to gain power.”

 

“If you are talking about the rumors about the creatures of the Downworld, its just a vile story spread to demoralize our armies!” King Robert speaks a little too strongly and Alexander catches a secret look being passed between Lady Herondale and Lord Branwell, almost as if they knew more than they were letting on about the rumors that stated Valentine Morgenstern had summoned creatures from a world unknown and experimented on them until they yielded him some sort of magical power in combat and prolonged his life. “They are nothing but a myth! Morgenstern had no special power about him or his armies!”

 

Lady Gray gazes at the King for one long minute of sizzling anticipation but sits back in her chair without another word, but her words and her look had caused the Council to break into nervous murmurs again, and Alexander himself feels oddly ominous about the situation and suspicious about his father’s sudden lashing out as well as the look that passed between Lady inquisitor and Lord Admiral. Alexander hadn’t been the one to lead the troops against Valentine in his castle, but he knew both his father and Lord Branwell had been there and they seemed to have witnessed something that warranted utmost secrecy if even Alexander wasn’t privy to it. 

 

“We’ll discuss this again when we gather next week, I expect all of you to come forward with a plan to avoid more such tragedies.” His father sounds resigned as he waves a hand and dismisses the Council. “Lady Inquisitor, Lord Admiral and Lady Gray, please remain behind.”

 

At that moment Alexander knows there is more to this than what meets the eye. 


End file.
